Permission
by xxlovver
Summary: She had never gave him the permission to die, until she did. a one shot.


"You are not allowed to die. Do you understand?" She had told him those words in various forms over and over again over the last fifty years of their partnership. Every single time she had meant them more than she had meant anything else she had ever said. Her very existence depended on him being by her side.

The first time she could remember pleading for him to live was when he was shot during her karaoke performance. While the result hadn't ended in her favor, or so she thought, his fake death shook her to her core. Even after she had forgiven him for lying to her, she couldn't get over the week she had went thinking he was gone forever.

She made him promise not to be a hero when he left for Afghanistan. Their feelings for each other had been placed out in the open and while she had turned him down, the thought of him going to the Middle East absolutely devastated her. She knew years later thinking back on that time that they were both running away from one another, and she was forever grateful that he returned to her safely.

They were trying to catch Palant when she pleaded with him not to die. She had just asked him to marry her and was leaving her heart in his hands as he went after the terrible man who still haunted her dreams many decades later. "Yeah, I understand." He had responded and it was enough for her.

She was furious at him for making her walk away from the home they had built. For making her take Christine to Max and hide until it was all over. "Don't you die. Ok?" She had asked, needing him to promise her he would leave her no matter what. If she hadn't returned to warn him that he may have just done that. Those three months he spent afterwards in prison wasn't nearly as painful as a lifetime without him would have been.

They spent their entire partnership running against death. When they had both decided on leaving that life behind there was a sense of peace in their lives for once. There was also a lot of boredom but they knew they were both safe and that their young children were going to be okay as well. When Cam and Audrey came to her door that day to discuss what they had found, nothing made sense to her anymore. She had no idea what he was up to for him to be supposedly dead. She had not given him permission to die.

Hank had been up half the night fighting both of them on sleep when they had collapsed on the bed the toddler between them finally content. "We almost lost all of this." She whispered to her husband who looked over the tiny blonde boy to her with concern. They were both on leave after the explosion at the Jeffersonian and no matter how relieved they were to be alive the weight still fell on them at any given moment. "You said it yourself though, we didn't." He said softly reaching over Hank to take her hand. "I know and we're not going to anytime soon. I refuse to let it happen." He chuckled softly and nodded. "I know, Bones."

Dr. Temperance Brennan, an Anthropologist who believed in science more than anything spent her entire life over-rationalizing every thought and action. She knew that every time something bad happened in their lives that there was a high chance of one of the dying. She had watched her friends die in her arms, her father died protecting her children, she had made her entire career out of finding answers for the dead. Yet she refused to let the love of her life die, no matter how irrational it was everytime she said it. She felt like her words and his promises meant that it wouldn't happen.

Years and age had worn on the both of them. The two of them retired and settled in their home watching their now grown children start families and careers of their own. The damage to Booth's body had started to get the best of him as he grew older, she saw how he moved slower and breathed quicker walking the short distance from their bedroom to the kitchen. He had told her he wanted to grow old with her, sit in rocking chairs and be happy and they had proudly done that. Now he laid in their bed, She, Parker, Christine, and Hank all around him watching as he fought to live another minute.

"It's okay, Booth. You have my permission."


End file.
